Liverpool ‘not for sale’ after £2 billion bid

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group insisted Friday the Premier League club is not for sale after details emerged of a failed £2 billion ($2.6 billion) takeover bid from a cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour.

Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported that Abu Dhabi-based Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nehayan approached the club over several months in late 2017 and into early 2018.

Advertisements

Advertisements

He then made the £2 billion offer that would have been the most expensive takeover in the history of the game.

Liverpool — 18-times English champions — said the club was still open to new outside investment but is not for sale.

Advertisements

Britain’s Press Association said it understood that the interest — one of a number of approaches FSG have received in recent years — did not get past the vetting stage because it was deemed neither credible nor worthy of being put to the ownership.

“FSG have been clear and consistent: the club is not for sale,” said a Liverpool statement.

“But what the ownership has said, again clearly and consistently, is that under the right terms and conditions we would consider taking on a minority investor, if such a partnership was to further our commercial interests in specific market places and in line with the continued development and growth of the club and the team.”

Advertisements

Malcolm Glazer’s £790 million purchase of Premier League rivals Manchester United in 2005 remains the most expensive football takeover deal.